Annual Report 2014

Well, it’s that time of year when WordPress generates our Annual Report and we find out how many sold-out Sydney Opera House performances we earned. My first full year (2012) as a blogger I didn’t even rate one! That year visitors were compared to Mt. Everest climbers, and I’m sure there was no intended connection with oxygen deprivation.

This year — identically to last year — I managed to fill the House “about” five times. That’s page views; I’m up just shy of 500 views from last year (not quite a 4% increase). Visitors is another matter. Over 2,000 more visitors stopped by this year (a 140% increase).

But I really wanted to write about the posts…

Page views are up a mere (almost) 4% this year (less than 500 views), so either I’m consistently good or haven’t improved very much!

It’s fascinating to me how some posts seem to attract views. They don’t attract Comments or Likes, so I’m not sure if people are finding the post due to searching for something else or are truly interested in the post.

Overall, that post, since July of 2011, has had 860 views. (That’s less than half of the 1744 views that Santa post has.) This year it still ranks in third place for post views: 305. In fact, it’s been in the top five posts every year since it was published (second place in 2013 and 2012).

The most viewed post this year was a Brain Bubble from last year where it was also the most-viewed post: BB #27 — Far Less. Judging by frequent search strings, the attraction is clearly “Toyota Jan” (actress Laurel Coppock).

Toyota Jan

That post was also about bacon, but as popular as bacon is TJ trumps it! She’s made that post my third most viewed ever. (Thanks, Jan!)

Also in the Top Five this year and last is a post I couldn’t be more pleased to see attracting page views: Rick O’Shay. That one was about comic artist Stan Lynde and his comic strip, Rick O’Shay.

That is one of my favorite posts because it has roots deep in my childhood. While writing it I emailed Stan Lynde (to ask his permission to use images from the comic), and he graciously replied! Others who knew him have let me know what a wonderful human being and gentleman he was. That was readily apparent even in our brief exchange.

Stan Lynde

I wrote that post in March of 2013. Mr. Lynde died in August of that year. I am very glad I didn’t put off writing it and had the chance to actually correspond with someone who so deeply touched my childhood.

That post came in second this year, third last year, and is my fourth most-viewed post.

Coming in fourth this year, the only post actually written this year: Madam Secretary & Scorpion. That was about the two new CBS shows named in the title. Madam Secretary (the TV show) is still high on my list of good TV, but isn’t stunning me quite as it did at first. I haven’t watched Scorpion since the first episode.

[I am pleased to say that NCIS:New Orleans continues to please and continues to follow the model of its parent, NCIS. Meanwhile, I become less and less enamored of NCIS:Los Angeles with every episode.]

And coming in fifth this year, another oldie from my first year of blogging (2011): Barrel of Wine; Barrel of Sewage. This post (my 20th ever posted here) also came in fifth last year, and this is another one I’m really glad to see being viewed — it describes an important point of view and (I think) gives a nice description of entropy along the way.

Again, lack of Comments (or even Likes) has me wondering what the attraction actually is (or if people are actually reading it or were searching for something else). With 369 views since posted, it’s my fifth most-viewed post.

Leon Wieseltier

While it didn’t make the Top Five, another post from this year that’s gotten a lot of views is my Leon Wieseltier post. Given how much I was (and continue to be) blown away by what this man has to say, I’m glad to see that post getting a lot of views (143).

For some reason a post from last year trumped it with 179 views: Elephant Story. That one is another post of a joke I liked. It was intended as a set up for an elephants post I intended to write (but still haven’t gotten around to). It’s my seventh most viewed post ever!

The strangest most viewed post to me is Beams of Steel. It came in 10th this year and is eighth most viewed overall. What I don’t understand is why that one and not the two companion posts published the same day (Conspiracy Theories and Final Thoughts).

WTC7 damaged by collapse of WTC1.

That day being September 11, 2012. The post is one of three I wrote to commemorate the eleventh anniversary of 9/11. All three explore what really did happen that day (airplanes hit buildings and they fell down) and tries to debunk the conspiracy theories that some hold.

The post has 255 views… and not a single Comment other than one I wrote begging someone to please tell me what the attraction to that one post is. What makes it weirder is that the companion posts (one on either side) do have some Comments.

I can’t figure it out!

If you’ve picked up on the phrase “most viewed post,” that’s because I’ve been excluding pages (as does the WP Annual Report). In fact, one page of mine is second most viewed (page or post) this year and third overall: Bushido Code.

Another popular page this year (coming in eighth) is: Assassin Movies (because who doesn’t love a good movie about deliberate murder).

I’ll close with honorable mention to another post about a topic important to me: Hawkeye & Margaret. That post was from my 2012 TV Tuesday series about my Top Five TV shows of all time. Obviously that one was about the TV show M*A*S*H.

This year it was my eleventh most viewed post (thirteenth counting pages and posts). Overall it’s my ninth most viewed post (or eleventh including pages and posts).

Welcome to all my new visitors!

And so there it is. Thank You to all my visitors, and a special Thank You to those of you who’ve joined in the fun by Commenting — I value you most of all!

I hope you are all enjoying your Chillaxmas! (Remember, today is the Sixth Day of Christmas!)

17 responses to “Annual Report 2014”

Big stats day in WordPress land; I received about a dozen posts all related to these reports – and that was before North America woke up. You seem to be doing very well Wyrd; I think you have an unusual ability to mix topics whilst retaining a sense of humour consistently throughout – except when I drive you nuts of course!

Yeah, it’s that time of year. I always have mixed feelings about it. I know there’s a mild feeling of “Aw shucks” seeing how many times others are filling the Sydney Opera, and I can’t help but wonder if others with even less traffic than I get feel even worse.

You may — on rare occasion drive me a little nuts — but I still love ya, my friend! (And I’m always happy when we talk, even if we butt heads.)

Interesting. My Annual Report from WordPress likened my number of views to the Louvre Museum, not the Sidney Opera House. I’m probably going to do a year in review post, although, like you, I won’t be sharing the actual WordPress report. It will be more of a personal summary.

There’s also one about a San Francisco street car. Not sure how they pick which one to use — randomly or based on volume? — but a San Fran connection would have been nice for you, eh?

Say, speaking of San Francisco, how are baseball fans reacting to Panda’s defection to the Bo’Sox? (That’s gotta bit a bitter-sweet deal for you personally. Left your current home team for your old one!)

I have mixed feelings about the Panda’s defection. I’m still a Red Sox fan at heart, and the Sox had such a bad season, so I’m happy that they got him and hope he can help them turn things around, although they also need to do something to beef up the starting rotation.

Bottom line, I’m hoping that he will do more good for the Sox than his departure will do harm to the Giants. I would still love to see a World Series between the Red Sox and the Giants some day.

Heh, yeah! That would be the World Series for you! (Although who would you root for? It would be an easy choice for me. I’m strictly American League, plus the Giants are on my ‘list’ for taking the win away from both the Rangers and the Royals. (Somehow I’m okay with them beating the Tigers! 🙂 )) Anyway, if history is any judge, the Giants will be taking 2015 off from winning World Serieses.

(Oh, my. Sometimes I’m very, very slow. I just now caught on that W.S. stands for Wyrd Smythe and World Series. Cool! 🙂 )

Okay, so now we know about at least four “levels” of volume: the Mt. Everest one, the San Fran streetcar one, the Sydney Opera House one, and the Louvre Museum one (I wonder if I’ve ordered them in volume order?). Have you heard of any others? (Anyone? Anyone?)

You should look at search terms on your stats page to see if people googled stuff that landed them on your ‘only viewed’ posts. I’ve seen correlations in some my posts that have been viewed a lot. Also, I find that the more any of my posts are shared on social platforms, the less comments and likes I have…
Diana xo

Yeah, I know! One monkey re-writing the other monkeys. It’s lucky the whole post isn’t gibberish (or just pictures of banananananas — I can never remember how many ‘anana’s there are supposed to be, to I throw in a bunch of extras just to be safe).

I do sometimes look at the search terms — that’s how I know what a huge draw “Toyota Jan” is. I’ve never tried to correlate them with other posts, though. That’s a good idea!

Interesting about social shares. Do you think people are Commenting or Liking on the share in the social media rather than on the post itself? That would explain a lot. But, man, that’s kind of a bummer. Someone who shared my post getting all the “glory”? Good thing I don’t do this for the glory, eh?

You still get the glory Smitty as it links to your post! Silly Willy! Just because someone shares your post on social media though, doesn’t mean anyone is reading it…but technically they could be and just not leaving comments…It’s so complicated – UGH!

I found the report an eye opener since I hardly ever look at my statistics. It’s strange because the more diverse I make my topics, the more people will come, but whenever I write about the same things, I get more comments. So I figure it’s all a balancing act.

That makes sense. A bigger net catches more fish — also a wider variety of fish. But when you fish in a specific spot, the fish comment more. Hmmm… Well, that wasn’t a very good analogy! Probably shouldn’t have started drinking this early… 😮